Graduates' removal business helping students

15 May 2015

A removal service designed to take the stress out of moving house for students has been founded by entrepreneurial Aston graduates.

Jodhi Aghimien and Mina Amissah launched Unexmove, an affordable and easy to use shipping service entirely for students, earlier this year.

The pair, who both graduated in 2013, founded the business after suffering from bad moving experiences themselves. Mina describes how, one year, she had to pay for a taxi to take her possessions from Birmingham to her hometown of Crawley – a 310 mile round trip – while Jodhi had to take numerous train journeys to fully move her belongings.

Bemoaning the lack of a student-dedicated shipping company, they realised there was a gap in the market and duly formed Unexmove. Their business is committed to making the process of moving house as simple as possible – students simply have to state where and when they want their goods transported. The company also palletise and wrap each item shipped, ensuring their safety.

Business and Management graduate, Jodhi, said:“It can be very stressful moving in and out of university. Not only that, it is often inconvenient for students’ parents, who may not have the time to help them transfer their possessions from one home to another. When many students should be enjoying end of year events or getting to know each other during Freshers, they are actually fretting about how best to leave or move into their accommodation.

“Unexmove solves that problem. We are entirely student focussed, placing them at the centre of everything we do. Anyone using our service just has to tell us where they want their belongings moved to and we’ll do the rest, leaving them free to enjoy their time at university.”

After founding Unexmove, Jodhi and Mina sought support from the Aston University led Birmingham Skills for Enterprise and Employability Network (BSEEN) programme, which helps students and graduates setting up new ventures. They wanted practical knowledge from start-up industry experts and were given insights and tutorials into the marketing, financial and legal aspects of running a business.

Unexmove is now piloting its services at Aston University, before a planned roll out to universities across the West Midlands and, eventually, throughout the UK. Jodhi and Mina hope to expand their business so that it becomes engrained in the university experience – the service of choice for all students moving house or accommodation each year.